Day 29  - Cardiff to Magor

Date: Sunday 27th September 2009   Distance: 30.33

Arrived at Cardiff Central Station around 11.30 where we left the car for the night. We set off through industrial and run down areas on flat easy to ride cycle-ways. Then marshland bordered by open drainage took over until we reached a bird reserve right by the coast, where paths meandered through and past a small white lighthouse.
We passed fields full of horses, often Shetland and many tethered on the grass verges by the roads. Further on we had our homemade butties on the estuary beach and a pint at the pub set by the sea wall. Not long after this we were chased by a manic Jack Russell, whose owner failed to call him back. With frantic pedalling we managed to drop him (surprisingly fast for a little dog) only to lose our mirror. I yelled at the owner who came with a long pole, perhaps adept at extricating dog from cyclists, but once we had got off the bike he kept his distance. That is the first near miss for the ankles in the 700 or so miles thus far!

Mirror retrieved, on the run into Newport we were struck by the ghetto like area. It was so multicultural it didn’t feel British at all let alone Welsh. Our first real hill was unnecessary but we wanted to see the small cathedral that had a letter in the Sunday Telegraph for raising one and a half million pounds for its roof. It looked really old but in fairly good shape to us. Unfortunately we couldn’t go in because there was a Christening so it was back down the hill again!

We had booked our B and B en route at a TravelLodge and found it to be at a motorway service station. We were able to take our bike in the room with us and it was surprisingly quiet. Eating that evening was not so easy. Sunday night is a bad day for eating out in Wales. Armed with bright torches we ventured out the back of the lorry park to find a way to the lanes behind. Through a bit of scrub and Bob was over the barbed wire hurdle but I being too short to go over tried the route under and fell on a lump of concrete and luckily only my shoes were covered in dog poo. I made it in the end and it was a nice little walk to the village and hay on the verges helped me to clean myself up.
Two pubs with no food but a rather nice Indian Restaurant with really good house wine catered for us both. It was nicely decorated and service was excellent. I had tamarind for the first time as a pickle with my poppadums and the tikka masala was very tasty, while Bob had steak and chips with no hint of spice. We definitely recommend The Mango House.